
Blue Coat credits its purchase of Network Appliance’s NetCache business in September 2006 with the increase in 50 new customers.
“Out of that 50 there’s already 10 that are interested in moving across to Blue Coat’s WAN optimisation product. These are your usual suspects, the multinational organisations,” said Wayne Neich, regional sales manager A/NZ at Blue Coat.
Neich said the vendor has a two-tiered channel program with partners selling and implementing in the SME sector.
“The profit margins for our resellers are potentially very good. They aren’t just selling a box, services can be included on top of the initial sale,” said Neich.
He believes Blue Coat’s WAN optimisation product is unique to the A/NZ market place.
“Right now Cisco has the right pieces for the market, while Juniper has about three out of four of the right pieces. However F5 and Citrix are lagging behind technology wise,” said Neich.